Intel unveils 10-core Xeon CPU

Intel has unveiled its new line of Xeon server and workstation processors, and the centrepiece is the company's first 10-core CPU.

Based on the 32-nm Westmere-EX architecture, the new CPUs offer suitably outlandish specifications. The top-end Xeon E7-8870 offers an amazing ten Hyper-Threaded cores running at 2.4GHz, with a huge 30MB of shared cache. The new chips are also able to address up to 2TB of system RAM; a 100 per cent increase over Intel's last generation of server chips.

However, with prices starting at $770 and rising to $4,616 for the E7-8870, you'll need to be a committed Folding@home team member or the owner of a major server farm in your basement in order to justify the purchase as a consumer.

Intel has also introduced the first server CPUs based on its Sandy Bridge architecture, entering the range as the E3 series. These are aimed at the lower-end server market, though, with Intel expecting the Sandy Bridge architecture to 'trickle up' the Xeon range in the future.

Are you excited about the prospect of CPUs with ten cores or more finding their way into consumer CPUs in the future, or are you still struggling to use four cores, let alone ten? Either way, let us know in the forums.

I still find it strange that they using older Nehalem based core for these latest top end chips. If I was paying that much for a CPU I'd like to think I was getting their latest and best technology.
Still, if they do a cost analysis, I'm sure it'll work out for them.

Originally Posted by McSteel130W seems a little too optimistic, methinks. I'd find this figure much easier to accept if it was typical draw rather than peak draw... So, are you guys @ BT labs going to test a specimen or two? :)

That's TDP - the typical load heat output, not power consumption per se.

Originally Posted by McSteel130W seems a little too optimistic, methinks. I'd find this figure much easier to accept if it was typical draw rather than peak draw... So, are you guys @ BT labs going to test a specimen or two? :)

I'll be speaking to Intel about it this very morning. Though I think it would only be fair to test four, not two :)

Originally Posted by McSteel130W seems a little too optimistic, methinks. I'd find this figure much easier to accept if it was typical draw rather than peak draw... So, are you guys @ BT labs going to test a specimen or two? :)

That's TDP - the typical load heat output, not power consumption per se.

The TDP is the Thermal Design Power - the amount of energy the CPU will output, the amount of energy you must design your coolers to be able to absorb - it's the maximum the chip will output. With Intel CPUs, this is done at full load - the chip will only emit a maximum 130w of heat no matter how heavily loaded it is.

That is also the power drawn from the wall by the CPU.

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